Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Phil Solomon, shown in a 1999 photo, uses small hammers to pound the top of a steel drum, called "sinking," to make his instruments. Click photo for larger image. Three Rivers Arts Festival Schedule

A half-century ago, a little boy growing up in British Guyana took the coffee cans his parents threw away and beat life into them.

That boy was Phil Solomon, and little did he realize that banging out the rhythm of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" would connect his heart and enterprise to a 20th-century musical phenomenon: the steel drum.

Today, Solomon lives in Beechview and manufactures steel drums in his business not far away. And he's part of the reason that steel drum music is growing in this area and across the nation, though not at the rate he'd like it to.

Some music historians trace steelpan music to Trinidad, claiming it flowed out of a 200-year-old community of free slaves who used the tradition of African drumming to form rhythm bands in the 1930s using pans, automobile parts and discarded oil barrels.

The Caribbean was home to large oil terminals -- Texaco, Shell, Exxon -- and when the old barrels would leak, the companies would trash them. Locals used the cans as hog troughs, garbage bins, barbecue pits. But some used them to make music, much like the discarded coffee cans where Solomon found his rhythm.

The instrument, actually large kettle drums hammered concave, has been called universal because it blends two experiences -- European and African.

Blacks in the Caribbean wanted to create a drum, but the music they heard had the melodies of "God Save the Queen," so they created an instrument that gave voice to both.

The popularity of steelpan music soared when Guyana and other Caribbean nations won their independence from Britain in the 1960s.

At the same time, Solomon was developing a reputation as an excellent arranger, tuner and maker of steelpan and its music. He was in his 20s.

As his expertise grew, he toured with the British air force, went on the road to promote steelpan music in the Caribbean and played with Eddie Grant, the crossover artist who had a popular hit with "Electric Avenue."

By the end of the 1960s, the Guyana Ministry of Education wanted to standardize the instrument and asked Solomon to synchronize the drums, which carry about 30 notes.

In the mid-1980s, he moved to the United States to be near his brother and sister, whom he had not seen in more than a decade. At the time, they were attending the University of Pittsburgh, and his sister suggested Solomon settle here.

With his brother, O.V., he founded the Steel Impressions, and the band played country clubs, jazz venues and the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

It is typical for steel bands to have from four to 10 players. But some are orchestras with more than 300 pans, having tenor and bass parts. The music ranges from calypso and classical to rock 'n' roll.

"People in Pittsburgh knew nothing about steelpan music when we started playing" said Solomon, "but we were well received."

At one festival, he said 30,000 people visited the booth, and the band got so many requests, Solomon was able to end his job as a refrigeration technician.

He also began his business, the Solomon Steel Pan Co., which started in his basement, moved to a friend's house in the Strip District and eventually into a small facility on Saw Mill Run Boulevard. It is a family-run business, and Solomon's wife and four daughters, each of whom can play the steel drums, help out.

Awareness of steelpan music is developing across the nation.

At many colleges, there are orchestras of steelpan; at West Virginia University, you even can get a degree in steelpan making.

Locally, there are steelpan bands at Keystone Oaks High School, Urban Pathways Charter School and Washington High School.

Solomon's daughter Janera, who's producing a steelpan program for this year's Three Rivers Arts Festival, believes younger audiences should think of steelpan music as the hip-hop of the Caribbean, "something born out of the beat of the community."

This comparison is important because interest in steelpan music is slow to grow among African Americans. In the 20 years he's been in America, Solomon has been able to help establish programs in 50 schools; of that number, only two have been minority schools.

"The schools are important because it's a formal way of educating people, like much of what has been done with the piano.

"But, unfortunately, there's a lack of education, and black Americans don't see any connection with the music."